Dublin Boots

How do you make horse riding sexy? This is the challenge we took on in rebranding the conservative equine brand Dublin. They needed a total overhaul to become relevant, engaging and exciting to a younger, social media savvy audience.

Challenge

To make a brand that was once well loved and relevant, important and aspirational to a new generation of young horse riders. Our task was to shift perceptions from practical, to down-right sexy.

Idea

Led by a controversial product (red boots are banned in equestrian fields) we set out to cause a stir. To do this we launched a short film on YouTube that was part exercise video, part fashion film part bondage innuendo.

The idea was to capture a truth behind what every horse loving girl wanted- complete control over their horse. Within two weeks the video had 29,000 hits. It was the topic of much debate throughout the conservative equestrian world. Previously, no one had been brave enough to overtly show the connection between sex and horse riding.

Supporting the video was a full CRM program called the Red Riders, where young horse riders could join up and find out the latest style information. We also created a Facebook page, moderated it and created a Dublin branded YouTube page.

The shift was made. People were talking about Dublin in a new way. It went from drab to fab very quickly, all thanks to a very modest film budget of 50K.